City economy diverse, solid

By Lynn Brezosky :
August 6, 2013
: Updated: August 7, 2013 4:39pm

Workers unload crude oil from a tanker truck into railroad tankers at the Gardendale Railroad Inc. switching yard near Cotulla. Abandoned years ago, the yard has been transformed into a large rail interchange by Eagle Ford Shale activity.

Downtown's bustle of convention-goers and tourists taking in Texas history is just part of what makes the Alamo City's economy one of the nation's strongest.

Texas' second-largest city is continuing to grow as a hub of trade in the era of the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed here two decades ago. Jobs are being added at a healthy clip, with construction one of the strongest sectors.

The Eagle Ford Shale play, a major oil and gas development in South Texas, has gone from being an outskirts phenomenon to a direct hit.

Companies are making heavy investments in rail yards to the city's south to haul in sand for hydraulic fracturing. At writing, Halliburton was preparing to open a new facility on 150 acres in southern Bexar County and double its area workforce to about 1,000 employees.

The oil and gas boom compounds the geographic good fortune of being the crossroads of Interstate 35 (the Pan American Highway) and Interstate 10. As County Judge Nelson Wolff noted, 75 percent of Mexico's trade with the United States comes through Texas by truck on I-35.

And then there's the Toyota manufacturing plant, the extensive medical complex, the thriving university scene and continuing status as Military City USA, thanks to three military installations.

Joint Base San Antonio employs more than 92,000 people, is home to the nation's largest military hospital, and this year assumed training duties for airmen who direct air strikes in combat.

USAA, the financial services and insurance company that is San Antonio's biggest private employer, just leased about 128,000 square feet of office space to accommodate up to 1,000 more workers. Companies including Rackspace, Petco and SunEdison have all added local jobs.

St. Mary's University economist Steve Nivin said key bragging rights are coming through the Great Recession on solid ground, a strong residential real estate market, unemployment consistently below state and national averages, and investment in city neighborhoods and services.

According to the San Antonio Board of Realtors, sales of single-family homes in May were up 31 percent over May 2012, selling for an average of 10 percent more than the same time last year and spending only about 78 days on the market.

The city is sprawling outward. Employment within 3 miles of the center city dived 18.8 percent between 2000 and 2010, while jobs 10 to 35 miles out increased 56.3 percent. So the city is making an effort not to leave its core ignored.

Voters overwhelmingly approved a $596 million bond last year for an array of quality-of-life and infrastructure projects, including connectors to streamline movement on Loop 1604-U.S. 281 interchanges on the city's North Side.

Mayor Julián Castro has launched the Decade of Downtown, a residential development effort aimed at breathing new life into areas around the Pearl Brewery and other parts of the city's core.

The new VIA Primo buses are electric-diesel hybrids, part of a commitment to green energy.

“I would say it's solidly growing,” Nivin said of the city's economy.

“There's military, medical, manufacturing, Pearl and development downtown, ... and the hospitality industry has been doing well. Really, at this point, it's just nice, broad-based growth across the board in a variety of sectors. And that's a nice way to grow.”